Outrage in Italy as toddler dies after transplant with damaged heart
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Tributes left outside Monaldi Hospital in Naples, Italy, on Feb 21 for the two-year-old boy who died after receiving a damaged donor heart.
PHOTO: REUTERS
ROME – An Italian toddler who received a damaged donor heart died on Feb 21, in a case that has caused outrage in Italy over alleged medical malpractice.
The two-year-old had received a transplant in December, reportedly with a heart that was damaged during transit by coming into direct contact with dry ice.
Prosecutors are investigating six medical staff.
“It’s over. Domenico’s gone,” the boy’s mother, Ms Patrizia Mercolino, told Italian media.
She said a foundation would be opened in his name.
Her son had been on life support for weeks at a hospital in Naples in a case that has made headlines in Italy.
The donor heart was reportedly transported from Bolzano in northern Italy to Naples – 800km away – in an unsuitable container without a thermometer that could have signalled the excessively low temperature.
Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said in a statement quoted by Italian media that Domenico’s case had “moved the whole of Italy”.
Mr Schillaci earlier spoke of his concern that organ donations could decrease as a result of the case, and called for “clarity” to ensure continued trust in the country’s medical services. AFP
